Specifically, training them to locate and dig out avalanche victims. From Outside Magazine:
Wolverines: The Future of Search and Rescue
The wolverine has a reputation.
“He is one of the most powerful, thievish, daring, and efficient killing machines known to man,” writes Mark Allardyce in Wolverine: A Look into the Devil’s Eyes. The creature’s English name derives from the word wolver, or “wolf-like.” Its scientific label, Gulo gulo, comes from the Latin for “glutton.” It has been known to eat its victims—which include everything from deer and sheep to full-grown caribou—bones, teeth, and all. The animal has been called the hyena of the north. When you type “Can a wolverine” into Google, the search engine offers “kill a polar bear?”
It’s no surprise, then, that Mike Miller’s proposal to train wolverines to search for—and help rescue—avalanche survivors has raised some eyebrows around his corner of Alaska, near Anchorage.
Surprising intellegence:
“Anything you can train a dog to do, you can train a wolverine to do, five times quicker,” Miller says.
More at the site. Like bears, you have to bond with them at a very early age. The article talks about bottle-feeding them as kits.
Sounds like a great idea. I once saw one on my farm trotting right along the tree-line by the pasture. Very distinctive ears and gait.
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